The Cultural Expression of Music

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Societies consist of several diverse elements, which are significant in the advancement of social notions. One of those key elements is media. In today’s society we approach countless varieties of media that are constantly influencing the way individuals live their lives. Consuming media on a daily basis has an immense effect on the way people view things within society. A source of media that tends to dominate our daily lives is music. Music is currently presented within every aspect of our lives and has become a commodity more than a cultural aspect. It is existent in every occasion with a variety of genres. It has now become available everywhere at any time of day. With music being such a big commodity in today’s society, popular music developed. Popular music is based upon what is appealing to most individuals throughout society, which is determined by a scale of activity such as music charts. It is considered as a key cultural expression that highlights the attitudes of personalities (Joan Serrà, 2012).
Due to the marketing of popular music, music has an immense effect on the way people view things within society creating an effect on our thoughts and perspectives. Popular music guides music artists to produce what is in high demand, which results in pseudo-individualization and standardization (Allen, 2005). It consists of a variety of themes that are presented by different music artists on a regular basis. One of the well-known themes is exploiting sexuality and gender in order to be successful. Social constructions versus essentialism are highlighted components that are constantly expressed in today’s popular music culture. Today’s popular music consists of a variety of sexual references to attract consumers. Whether it i...
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...have such a big impact on society due to the notion of gender and sexuality stereotypes, so do many other female music artists.
Throughout their career, the Pussycat dolls managed to indicate a variety of different social factors that highlighted social components with sexuality and gender stereotypes. Sexuality is seen as the driving force behind a variety of different genres of music with the main one being pop music (Karina Wilson, 2013). Sexuality is communicated in a variety of ways in music whether, it is through the lyrics of a song, the arrangements in the music video or the clothing the music artist is wearing. With popular music being such a big commodity within society, everyone has access to it as it sends out specific messages. Those messages are being interpreted in unethical manners impacting the basis of society in relation to gender and sexuality.

The Dynamic Nature of Cultural Expressions
Overtime, people’s view of cultural expressions has evolved to exclude some of the stereotypical biases that were attached to certain forms of cultural expressions. A person who wore certain clothes, or had tattoos on their skins or spotted dreadlocks was viewed as rogue and could be viewed as rebellious. Not any more, the world has moved to accept new forms of cultural expressions, and people have found new ways of expressing what they feel is the right

The manifestation of roots music from African immigrants developed into American musical genres such as spirituals, blues, and gospel music. As the centuries progressed, spirituals and work songs extended to comprise distinctive song genres, particularly the blues of southern blacks. Work songs and spirituals from African Americans are regarded as a window into their cultural life, their songs interconnect the optimisms, burdens, and beliefs of slavery. Music was imbedded into life, songs were hummed

Cultural expression frequently serves as a way to cope with conditions of a society or culture. Film, literature, and music all serve as cultural time machines. These modes of cultural travel can send us back and help us understand the cultural impact of the past and give us a greater understanding of why the world is what it is today. In the countries of Brazil and Jamaica, with similar histories of oppression, slavery, genocide, crushing poverty and systemic racism, it is not surprising to see

violent, honest, or genius, are only a few of the opposing terms associated with rap music in today’s American society. Whether it is the lyrics, the videos or the storytelling behind it, rap music seems to always have controversy surrounding it.
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Tricia Rose analyzes the lyrics, themes, storytelling, and cultures in rap music and delves into the cultural issues and debates that frame it. Tricia Rose is a hip-hop theorist who teaches African

TA: Dennis Somera
Modern Yellowface, Harajuku Culture, and the Construction of the Asian American Woman
American pop culture recently received flak for cultural appropriation. Artists such as Katy Perry and Selena Gomez were criticized for superficially incorporating Asian images into their music. However, cultural appropriation and cultural tourism – and its consequences – are commonly seen in relation to traditional culture; this lack of attention towards visual representation of modern Asian

higher education are more likely to be cultural exclusive.
Peterson and Kern, however, find a tendency of increasing “omnivorousness” in highbrow’s musical taste during the decade of 1982 and 1983. That is, highbrows reported liking more lowbrow genres, which consists of country music, bluegrass, gospel, rock and blues in their study, in 1983 than they did ten years before. This finding contradicts with Bourdieu’s idea of higher status leading to more cultural exclusiveness, or “snobbishness”. Peterson

hip-hop culture in its’ entirety. This cultural movement originated in New York City from the African American, and Latino American communities in the 1970’s. This culture consists of DJing, break dancing, graffiti-art, and beat boxing. It has been and still is somewhat of an outlet for the youth to express themselves in a positive manner. Most classic hip-hop has a positive undertone and message to be conveyed to an audience. It is strongly based off of self-expression and addressing negativity in a way

Empirore although it is often protested for its inhumain and violen nature its popularity continues on today most likely because you can not find this entertainment in other countries except for in Spain where it is still considerd a part of their cultural tradition although it isi considered veryu violent and animalistic. It continues on today just out of spite of the fact that some people love it and bullfighting has been around for almost fifteen hundred years. Some of the largest bullfighting arenas

Latin American Culture
Undoubtedly, music is one of the most powerful forms of expression human beings have at their disposal. While composers and musicians often use music to communicate emotions, thoughts and feelings, music can also reflect the traditions, history and beliefs of a culture. Historically, some composers have used music to protest the actions of their country, but many nationalist composers have used music to reflect pride in their country. Music and folk songs are a large part of

long way since 1952 when music business icon Sam Phillips created it. Sam Phillips is considered the father of Rock and Roll. He went against the social normality of segregated music, and produced music that he felt should be made. Even when faced with career ending criticism, Phillips continued on making history. Not only is Sam Phillips responsible for the being the origin of the seemingly everlasting Rock and Roll movement, he segregated music amidst all kinds of cultural disruption with civil rights